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In many books, the plot develop comes about in the free writing stage. When you edit it later, all it requires is some holes filled or points clarified. However, with The Peggy’s, plot development needed more than a quickie since the story is about a team of women serial killers. I know, interesting, isn’t it?

The idea came from watching too many Criminal Mind episodes. The normal profile for a serial killer is a white male, between twenty and forty-five years old, intelligent, and able to blend into his surroundings. There are many variations of course, however; this is the profile which is the most recurring. Leaves a lot out, doesn’t it?

My mind began to conjure up a different scenario. Most serial killers don’t work in teams. There are exceptions of course, and these focus on dominant and submissive personalities, and rarely do they include a female.

 

The most notable exception of a female serial killer who was part of a team is the infamous case of Karla Homolka. And like most women who are part of a male and female team, the woman claims she was forced to participate. Which wasn’t the case with Karla Homolka though she convinced the world it was. Until videos revealed otherwise.

Do the research yourself if you are interested. My own interest lies in the fact that serial killer teams, as in more than two, are extremely rare, often disastrous, and fall apart quickly. None are exclusively female. Which led my mind to contemplate an all-female serial killer team who are successful for over ten years.

I wrote the story. Set it aside then came back to it and began to truly develop the story from my original book. I worked out the plot by going backwards. I knew what I wanted as an ending, which wasn’t a part of the original book. I took this ending, and using parts from the original book, I developed chapter by chapter how I wanted the story to progress. To get that all important flow you want that holds a reader from beginning to end.

Once I had the plot set and the timeline established, an important part of a thriller, I had to look at the characters I wished to use.

The first thing I needed to change were the character’s names. I recently wrote a short blogpost about the importance of names. The names I used in the original book were bland at best. A lot of Johns and Janes and such type names. There was no originality. Nothing that made you attach the name to a face inside your head.

A name does as much to describe the character as an actual description. And with the main character, I was at a loss. I did what I always do when I am a loss. I smiled at my Wifesty and asked her. Which was the best thing I could’ve done. She came up with the name Rowena. 

Immediately I added the surname of Adair. Rowena Adair. It is a romantic name, isn’t it? When I first used the name, my mind conjured up a raven haired beauty standing on a cliff in the cold morning air in Wales or Scotland or Ireland.

A strong willed woman who waits for her man to come home from the sea but doesn’t rely on this man. Relies on no man.

The name is romantic. It fit in well with the way I wanted the character to behave. Rowena Adair is a cop. A woman who has her superiors use her beauty to their advantage. A police officer, notice the political correctness in this moniker. I purposely did not use policewoman. It was completely acceptable to use the feminine form of the job reference up until about a decade ago. Since this is set in the present, I needed to watch the way a person is addressed by their job. There are no more policewomen in the United States, nor are there policemen. They are all police officers. A small detail but an important one.

I needed a back story for Rowena to match her name. A woman whose dad was a cop and his dad before him. She joins the force hoping to follow in her dad’s footsteps only to be assigned to vice. Assigned as a fake prostitute to catch unwitting men soliciting for sex. A job she is good at. Her beauty alone manages to attract men like flies.

Only it also attracted a serial killer. A man the feds were looking for a long time. Rowena stops the guy by herself and makes the arrest. Finds herself in the center of media attention. She is promoted and assigned to homicide where she moves up the ranks quickly and eventually becomes Captain. When she and her command are assigned to the first Peggy victim, her star begins to fall.

She is demoted and reassigned to narcotics where she fails again. This time she falls in love with her mark which complicates the case and when it is done, she is demoted once more to sergeant and assigned as the night watch officer.

Not a bad back story to go along with the romantic name. What’s more romantic than tragedy? It is what most every romance book is based on. Or rather – drama.

Anyways, you don’t get to see much of the above. It is Rowena’s character. She is not the story, so her background is often only alluded to. Which is what I like to see in characters. Unless they are the story, or the sub-story, I don’t like to see too much of their histories. Only if it applies to the story or is a necessity for a scene to make sense, otherwise, I like the character to develop in the mind of the reader. 

The same way with the main protagonist. His name is Jebediah Trigg. A name right out of Kentucky’s Appalachian heritage. I liked the character of Jeb. He is a hard man true to his roots. A man who is the first victim of the Peggy’s. A man who is used and abused by the system and develops a good, old fashioned blood feud towards the Peggy’s. 

Something I haven’t spoken about is the name The Peggy’s. A name pertinent to the entire story line. It is developed from the modern term for a reversal of the roles in anal sex. Pegging is when a woman uses a prosthetic penis to insert into a man’s anus. Usually willingly, but not necessarily. In this story, the victims are most definitely unwilling. The victims are pegged by the women. Women who are, by definition, both rapists and murderers. Not the norm when considering women.

Not the norm, but not impossible either. A good concept with a good name to back it up. 

I decided to diversify the characters, by the use of their names, in the name of modernization. I use their names to define the characters. A name is powerful and an incredible a tool for a writer. Use them well and half your work is done when it comes to the characters.

Next, we will discuss locations as part of a story’s development.

I’m Ross, The Editor-in-Chief at the Pyrateheart Press and I’m out.